Politicians + Banking Reform = Financial Disaster

Anyone who doesn't harbor some degree of animosity for the bankers who, through a combination of stupidity, short-sightedness and avarice, caused the global financial crisis is a better person than I am.  That said, financial reform should not be tantamount to financial dismemberment.  And there's a little known accounting rule winding its way through financial reform that may be just that.
My writer husband and I often discuss our finances.  He is a brilliant man, one whose brilliance is primarily that of adept observations and the facility with which he uses language to share them.  His writer friends, many of whom are dear to me, share a trait with him:  they hate math.
Consequently, when the business channel drones on about FASB's consideration of mark-to-market accounting for mortgages held by banks, his eyes glaze over like a weary parent listening to his two-year-old blathering unending baby talk.  I imagine many others do as well.
This bill, however, is important.  And I believe that a combination of me speaking English and you being smart will result in your understanding that this is a big deal, and something you should tell your Congressional representatives to stop.
Here goes.
Let's pretend you lend money in the form of buying a bond from the ABC company.  They pay you interest and agree to repay you on a certain date.  Let's say your bond is worth $10,000 (the amount you lend them), your interest rate is 3% and the bond is due (repayable to you in full) on June 1, 2013.  Unless ABC company files for bankruptcy protection before your loan is due, you can expect to be paid $150 twice each year (3% on $10,000), and the full amount you lent them, $10,000, in three years.
Now let's say interest rates go up this Summer.  Now companies like ABC have to pay 4% for borrowed money, 1% more than the amount they're paying you.  If you sell your bond to someone else after rates go up, it will now be worth less than the $10,000 you paid for it, because anyone can now get 4% for their money, and your bond only pays 3%.  If you mark your bond's value to the current market price (mark-to-market), your bond will be worth less after rates go up than it was what you bought it.
But, what if you don't sell it?  What if you hold your bond until June 1, 2013, collect your 3% per year, and get all your money back?
While you hold your bond from now until 2013, what is it worth?

• Is it worth what you could sell it for after rates go up?
• Is it worth what you know you'll receive what the bond is due?

With that in mind, let's pretend you're a bank.  You are now lending money to people to buy houses.  You don't sell your mortgages to investors.  You keep the loans, collect the payments and keep the interest your customers pay.  When rates go up, are these mortgages worth less?  When rates go down, are they worth more?
Yes, according to this new rule.  Why should you care?
If banks have no intention of selling their mortgages, then they probably will be very careful how they lend money.  Why?  If they keep the mortgages, they keep the risk that if borrowers don't pay them back, they'll take the loss.  They won't make crazy loans to people and sell them to investors.  That's good.
But, when rates go up (as they are sure to do), these loans will be worth less.  Then, the banks have to put more money aside for them, and will have less to loan to you.
Seems crazy, doesn't it?  Banks will be penalized for NOT selling their loans to investors, and you'll have a harder time getting a loan.
So, here's the English translation of what's going on.  FASB  (pronounced FAS-bee), is the Financial Accounting Standards Board.  They're considering marking-to-market (immediate sale to investors value, not repayment value) all mortgages that banks intend to keep.
FDIC Chair Ms. Bair is against it, as is former Chair Mr. Isaac.  So am I.  So should you, if you intend to borrow money from a bank who makes mortgages and doesn't sell them to investors.
Contact your Congressional Representatives if you agree, and tell them that you are against FASB Topic 220, 825 and 815.